


destiny and other foes

by Hope_less_romantic



Category: Ever After High
Genre: A thorough examination of Ever After, Aged-Up Character(s), Apple White Bashing, Character Study, Dyslexic Daring Charming, F/M, Milton Grimm Being an Asshole, Multi, POV: Darling Charming, Post-Canon, darling charming is a badass, destiny is stupid be bisexual do crime, everyone in ever after is bi because i say so, when isn't he tho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:26:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28450125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hope_less_romantic/pseuds/Hope_less_romantic
Summary: Darling Charming's thoughts about her friends, family, experiences, life, and love.Or: I use a Darling character study to show off all my Ever After High headcanons.
Relationships: Daring Charming/Cerise Hood, Darling Charming/Chase Redford, Dexter Charming/Raven Queen
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	1. names

**Author's Note:**

> Do I have other things I should be working on? Definitely. Have I been able to stop thinking about EAH? No.  
> I started this in sixth grade, and it has no end in sight, honestly. So here's stories about all my favorite characters acting like normal teens and falling in love.  
> I want your feedback as it goes so I'm sorta posting this is hacked up chunks even though I never intended for it to be a chaptered fic. There will be a few side chapters to get other characters' sides of things.

_"Darling. She's just Darling. So that's what we'll call her."_

That must have been Darling Charming's mother's thought process when Darling was born.

Either that or they figured that if she had a name like Darling, she would eventually grow into the adjective. In any case, Darling hated her name. Darling meant beloved; something cute and worthless. But, Darling Charming meant being a fierce warrior: brave, kind, and always ready to dish out what people deserved. Who she was on the inside was not who she was expected to be. She wasn't Dashing Charming, or Dueling Charming, or even Delightful Charming. No, she was Darling Charming. To be put on a shelf and looked at. To be called "nice" and "pretty." Not "brave" and "a valued member of society." She was a perfect little background princess. Her mother made it clear that her destiny was to be married off to some prince's little brother, or to be someone's stepmother, or maybe, if she was "lucky" marry a main character prince. Because that was her destiny. And that was that. According to her family anyway.


	2. changes

It had been years since Raven Queen had sparked an uprising by refusing to sign the Storybook of Legends, and their class was about to graduate. You’d think people would have come to their senses in all the time that no one had poofed away, but every Royal in Ever After had only doubled down in their stance against Raven and her revolution. No matter how much good Raven did or how popular she got, Apple White and her posse, backed by Ever After’s gentry and Headmaster Grimm, continued to insist it was nothing but a dangerous phase. Briar and Ashlynn had split from the Royals within a year, encouraged by Raven destroying the Storybook of Legends, and many other students followed. But they still refused to see reason or consider that their friends might have switched for a reason. Darling had even been the one to perform some semblance of CPR and dislodge poisoned fruit from Apple’s lips to save her from certain death, but in all the time since the Dragon Games no one had bothered to tell the girl that the Princess Charming had been her savior. Apple seemed to think that the power of friendship or something woke her up, and no one told her the truth. Maybe Darling herself should have, but she really did not want to deal with Apple’s fury. Daring mostly just tried to avoid Apple as far as she knew, maintaining that even if they were true loves, and they weren’t, they should wait until they graduated to start really dating.

If only Ever After could understand that life didn’t have to be planned. You make your own Happily Ever After, why couldn’t they see that? Why did they insist that the Charming siblings follow destinies they’d never wanted or needed, and give them all ridiculous complexes? Daring was bred to be a selfish pretty boy prince, Dexter was never allowed to flourish lest he outshine his brother, and Darling was stifled to hell and back.


	3. daring

Everyone knew Dexter was less than the perfect Royal, he spent too much time with Raven and her friends for that, but Daring had always been assumed to be perfectly sat on the Royal side. Darling knew better. She was his sole confidant when it came to his biggest secret, he’d been swayed to the Rebel side all the way back at the end of freshman year, by finally talking to a girl they’d known since Spellementary School. He’d never told her who the girl was, only that he’d fallen for her hard. Darling had never really tried to look into who this girl might be, she respected her brother’s privacy and judgement. She had a suspicion or two, her gold was on Briar based on his descriptions of her shyness about being a Rebel, or maybe Maddie since he said the girl would never put much stock in the Legacy System if casually pressed. He said she was funny and awkward, but fiercely loyal and protective. That she was real and had always been able to knock his ego back down to size.

Daring’s narcissism and sense of self-importance had been forcefully instilled in him by their parents ever since he was born. Once Darling and Dexter came along it increased tenfold. Despite Daring being held back in Nursery Rhyme School, the Charmings still insisted he was perfect and had no flaws. It didn’t really matter if he wasn’t very good at academics anyway, Apple would be the one running the Kingdom. Daring had always told her that he wished he could just be a smart hero, who slayed evil beasts and found his true love easily. But unbeknownst to their parents, Daring struggled in school for a reason. He’d always been behind in learning to read, write, and even talk. It’d been dismissed as his natural “man of action” disposition, but while studying with his siblings Daring had confessed that he had issues with letters. They’d get all blurry and flipped around on the page and he’d never been able to remember words and spellings the way everyone else could. Dexter and Darling had exchanged looks, knowing of some whispers of other people’s experiences with the same problems. But no one in Ever After really looked into these sorts of things, since unless it was relevant to your destiny it shouldn’t be an issue. And if it did make your future harder, it was usually assumed to be natural or inherited from your parents. You never heard about someone being unable to play out their fairy tale because they couldn’t read. 

The Epic Winter incident had been catastrophic for the Charmings in many ways, with the biggest consequence being the revelation of Daring’s true destiny: to be the Beast to Rosabella Beauty. How they’d been able to keep that a secret from Apple was beyond her, but Daring’s lean into his old habits of staring into mirrors and leading girls on to gain back his confidence made a major resurgence after the Dragon Games, and Apple probably just assumed Rosabella was helping him get over it. Rosabella had a huge crush on Daring, and Darling knew her roommate thought the kiss she’d shared with him after his spell broke meant something. Really Daring just needed a friend who didn’t have the same childhood trauma as him, and Rosabella’s newfound position in his life as a destined true love was highly appealing after the loss of Apple. Apparently, it was right after that kiss that he ran into his real love and really talked to her for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The girl is Cerise if you couldn't guess.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos are appreciated.


End file.
